Alain Delon Biography

Alain Delon (Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon) is a French actor and businessman born on 8th November 1935 in Sceaux, France. In the 1960s he became one of Europe’s most prominent actors and screen sex symbols. He achieved critical acclaim for roles in films such as Rocco and His Brothers (1960), Purple Noon (1960), L’Eclisse (1962), The Leopard (1963), The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1965), Lost Command (1966) and Le Samouraï (1967).

His parents Édith (née Arnold; 1911—1995) and Fabien Delon (1904—1977), divorced when Delon was four.When his parents divorced, Delon was sent to live with foster parents. When they died, his parents shared him but the arrangement proved unsatisfactory. He attended a Roman Catholic boarding school, the first of several schools from which he was expelled because of unruly behavior. Teachers once tried to persuade him to enter the priesthood because of his aptitude in religious studies.

At 14, Delon left school, and worked for a brief time at his stepfather’s butcher shop. He enlisted in the French Navy three years later, aged 17, and in 1953-54 he served as a fusilier marin in the First Indochina War. Delon has said that out of his four years of military service he spent 11 months in a military jail for being “undisciplined”.

He spent time working as a waiter, a porter, a secretary and a sales assistant. During this time he became friends with the actress Brigitte Auber, and joined her on a trip to the Cannes Film Festival, where his film career would begin.

Alain Delon age

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was born on 8 November 1935 (82 years as of 2017)

Nationality

Delon acquired Swiss citizenship on 23 September 1999, and the company managing products sold under his name is based in Geneva. He resides in Chêne-Bougeries in the canton of Geneva.

Alain Delon Wife

Nathalie Delon (born Francine Canovas on 1 August 1941, Oujda) is a French model and actress, former wife of Alain Delon, mother of Anthony Delon and grandmother of Alyson Le Borges.

During the 1960s Nathalie was reputedly one of the most beautiful women in the world and dated both Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton after each of them divorced Elizabeth Taylor.

Romy Schneider and Alain Delon

The future famous film actor and a good friend, Jean-Claude Brialy offered Alain Delon to try himself in movies. First, Delon did not want to take on the role, but Jean-Claude’s persistence won. Alain was given a major role and by 1958 became known in the world of cinema. Alain had been summoned to appear in the film “Christina”.

Romy Schneider arrived at the shoot in Paris. She met many fans. Alain Delon, too, came to an official meeting with a bouquet of scarlet roses. Delain did not like his partner and he even said something unpleasant to her. The relationship of the partners on the set, too, did not develop.

Both were very different: she was brought up in a rather strict German traditions, and Alain was this windy Frenchman with an explosive, unrestrained character. She was a European celebrity, he was still noone.

They constantly argued. However, immediately after they finished shooting Romy flew to Paris, to see Alain. Alain rented an apartment, and they began to live together. Romy’s family was shocked by this immorality and insisted on a formal wedding. In 1959, Alain and Romy got engaged, but their constant quarrels and scandals continued.

Alain Delon was always the initiator of scandals in their relationship. He could get into an arguments with Romy and leave her for a long time. Then he’d came back, he’d be forgiven and everything went on as before. Romy and Alain flew together to Italy.

Director Visconti filmed Alain Delon in his film “Rocco and His Brothers”. Tense shooting, joint work in the play “What a pity that you slag” did not leave time to prepare for the wedding. Although perhaps it was not the reason. They could not get along, get accustomed to each other.

During summer of 1963 reporters photographed Alain Delon in an embrace with some blonde. Month later Alain told Romy, through a friend, that he was going to part with her and that he had another woman.

Romy found out that Allain was married and had a son. Two years later Alain Delon with his wife, Nathalie and son moved “to conquer Hollywood.” But Delon did not bring much success to Hollywood movies.

Parting with Delon wasn’t an easy ordeal for Romy Schneider. It was rumored that she wanted to commit suicide. Then she met Harry Meyen, who worked in the Berlin theater. Harry’s dated Romy and even divorced from his first wife.

Soon they were married and had a son, David. It seemed that life began to improve. But it was just an illustion … In 1969, Alain Delon phoned Romy and offered a join her in the film “Swimming Pool”. Romy agreed.

What did she expect to work or to revive old feelings? After the filming, she recalled that is was nothing more but a passion on screen. But Journalists wrote about the reunion of the famous couple, printed photos where Romy and Alain hug at the airport of Nice while saying goodbyes.

Their reunion never happend, however Romy family life derailed. Harry could not forgive her affair with Delon, he drank and fell into a depression. In 1973 they divorced. Their son remained with Romy. After the divorce Romy began to drink and soon faced problems with health .

But it was in the 70s, in spite of the depression, alcohol abuse and the disease Romy Schneider has played her best role. After her divorce from Harry, Romy Schneider married her young secretary, Daniel Byazini. He looked a lot like Delon. She gave birth to a daughter, Sarah. But this marriage did not last long as well.

The couple divorced and ex-husband took her daughter. In 1979, Harry Meyen committed suicide. Romi Schneider almost had a nervous breakdown, she accused herself of her ex-husband’s death. Alain Delon was not a good family man either. In 1969 he met the actress Mireille Darc, who became his wife.

Despite the constant scandals the marriage lasted 13 years. In 1987, the actor appeared with third wife – Rosalie Van Bremen. The couple had two children. Alain described himself as a bachelor since 1997.

Alain Delon Children

Anthony Delon – Son

Anthony Delon (born September 30, 1964) is a French-American actor, and son of actors Alain Delon and Nathalie Delon (Francine Canovas).

Alain-Fabien Delon – Son

Alain – Fabien Delon was born on March 18, 1994 in France. He is an actor, known for Fabio Montale (2001),

Christian Aaron Boulogne – Son

Ari Boulogne, says Christian Aaron Boulogne, born Ari Päffgen in Paris on August 11, 1962, is a french photographer.

Anouchka Delon – Daughter

Anouchka Delon was born on November 25, 1990 is a French-Dutch actress. Delon is the daughter of Alain Delon and Rosalie van Breemen.

She has a younger brother, Alain-Fabien Delon, and two older half-brothers, Christian Aaron “Ari” Boulogne, from her father’s affair with German singer, actress and model Nico, and Anthony Delon, from his marriage to actress and model Nathalie Delon. She is the aunt of the supermodel Alyson Le Borges. She has different colored eyes-one brown and one blue.

Alain Delon Daughter

At age 12 she acted alongside her father in the TV film Le Lion, an adaptation of the novel by Joseph Kessel. From 2007 to 2010, she trained at the Cours Simon in Paris.

In 2011, she performed with her father on stage at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. In 2015 she was a participant in the game show Fort Boyard.

with Ann-Margret, Van Heflin and Jack Palance. Delon’s first Hollywood film. In English.

Is Paris Burning?

Paris brûle-t-il ?

Jacques Chaban-Delmas

René Clément

written by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola. In English and French.

1966

Texas Across the River

Don Baldazar

Michael Gordon

with Dean Martin. In English.

Lost Command

Capt. Philippe Esclavier

Mark Robson

with Anthony Quinn, George Segal, Michèle Morgan and Claudia Cardinale. In English.

1967

The Last Adventure

Les Aventuriers

Manú

Robert Enrico

with Lino Ventura and Joanna Shimkus

Diabolically Yours

Diaboliquement vôtre

Pierre

Julien Duvivier

with Senta Berger

The Samurai

Le Samouraï

Jef Costello

Jean Pierre Melville

with Nathalie Delon

1968

Spirits of the Dead

Histoires extraordinaires

William Wilson

Louis Malle

anthology film

Farewell Friend

Adieu l’ami

Dino Barran

Jean Herman

with Charles Bronson and Brigitte Fossey

The Girl on a Motorcycle

La Motocyclette

Daniel

Jack Cardiff

with Marianne Faithfull. In English.

1969

Jeff

Laurent

Jean Herman

with Mireille Darc

The Sicilian Clan

Le Clan des Siciliens

Roger Sartet

Henri Verneuil

with Lino Ventura and Jean Gabin

The Swimming Pool

La Piscine

Jean-Paul

Jacques Deray

with Romy Schneider and Jane Birkin

1970

The Love Mates

Madly

Julien Dandieu

Roger Kahane

with Mireille Darc

Doucement les basses

Simon

Jacques Deray

with Nathalie Delon

Borsalino

Borsalino

Roch Siffredi

Jacques Deray

with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Rouvel. Also producer.

The Red Circle

Le Cercle rouge

Corey

Jean-Pierre Melville

with Bourvil, Gian Maria Volontè and Yves Montand

1971

The Assassination of Trotsky

Frank Jackson

Joseph Losey

with Richard Burton as Leon Trotsky. In English.

Fantasia Among the Squares (1971)

Fantasia chez les ploucs

A passenger

Gérard Pirès

cameo appearance

Red Sun

Soleil Rouge

Gauche

Terence Young

with Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune and Ursula Andress. In English.

The Widow Couderc

La Veuve Couderc

Jean Lavigne

Pierre Granier-Deferre

with Simone Signoret and Ottavia Piccolo

Dirty Money

Un flic

Edouard Coleman

Jean-Pierre Melville

with Catherine Deneuve

1972

Indian Summer

La prima notte di quiete

Daniele Dominici

Valerio Zurlini

with Giancarlo Giannini, Lea Massari, Sonia Petrovna and Alida Valli

1973

Shock Treatment

Dr. Devilers

Alain Jessua

with Annie Girardot

No Way Out

Tony Arzenta

Tony Arzenta

Duccio Tessari

Scorpio

Jean Laurier

Michael Winner

with Burt Lancaster and Gayle Hunnicutt. In English.

The Burned Barns

Les Granges brûlées

Judge Larcher

Jean Chapot

with Simone Signoret and Miou-Miou

Creezy

La Race des seigneurs

Julien Dandieu

Pierre Granier-Deferre

with Sydne Rome and Jeanne Moreau

Two Men in Town

Deux hommes dans la ville

Gino Strabliggi

José Giovanni

with Jean Gabin, Mimsy Farmer and Gérard Depardieu

1974

Borsalino & Co.

Roch Siffredi

Jacques Deray

sequel to Borsalino

Icy Breasts

Les Seins de glace

Marc Rilson

Georges Lautner

with Claude Brasseur and Mireille Darc

1975

Zorro

Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro

Duccio Tessari

with Stanley Baker and Ottavia Piccolo

The Gypsy

Le Gitan

Hugo Sennart

José Giovanni

also produced by Alain Delon

Flic Story

Roger Borniche

Jacques Deray

with Jean-Louis Trintignant and Claudine Auger

1976

Boomerang

Comme un boomerang

Jacques Batkin

José Giovanni

credited as writer

Armaguedon

Doctor Michel Ambroise

Alain Jessua

Monsieur Klein

Mr Klein

Robert Klein

Joseph Losey

César Award for Best Film

1977

Man in a Hurry

L’Homme pressé

Pierre Niox

Édouard Molinaro

with Mireille Darc

Death of a Corrupt Man

Mort d’un pourri

Xavier Maréchal

Georges Lautner

with Ornella Muti, Stéphane Audran and Mireille Darc

Le Gang

Robert

Jacques Deray

credited as producer

1978

Attention, the Kids Are Watching

Attention, les enfants regardent

“The Man”

Serge Leroy

with Sophie Renoir

1979

The Concorde … Airport ’79

Paul Metrand

David Lowell Rich

with Robert Wagner, Susan Blakely and Sylvia Kristel

The Medic

Le Toubib

Jean-Marie Desprès

Jean Freustié

with Véronique Jannot

1980

Three Men to Kill

Trois hommes à abattre

Michel Gerfaut

Jacques Deray

credit as writer

1981

Teheran 43

Foche

Aleksandr Alovand Vladimir Naumov

Golden Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival 1981

For a Cop’s Hide

Pour la peau d’un flic

Choucas

Alain Delon

credited as director and writer

1982

The Shock

Le choc

Martin Terrier

Robin Davis

with Catherine Deneuve

1983

Le Battant

Jacques Darnay

Alain Delon

with Anne Parillaud

1984

Our Story

Notre histoire

Robert Avranches

Bertrand Blier

with Nathalie Baye

Swann in Love

Un amour de Swann

Baron de Charlus

Volker Schlöndorff

based on Marcel Proust, with Jeremy Irons, Ornella Muti

1985

Cop’s Honour

Parole de flic

Daniel Pratt

José Pinheiro

with Fiona Gélin

1986

The Passage

Le Passage

Jean Diaz

René Manzor

with Christine Boisson

1988

Let Sleeping Cops Lie

Ne réveillez pas un flic qui dort

Commissaire Eugène Grindel

José Pinheiro

credited as co-writer and producer

1990

Dancing Machine

Alan Wolf

Gilles Béhat

Nouvelle Vague

Lennox

Jean-Luc Godard

with Domiziana Giordano

1992

The Return of Casanova

Le Retour de Casanova

Casanova

Édouard Niermans

Un crime (fr)

Charles Durand

Jacques Deray

credited as writer

1994

The Teddy Bear

L’Ours en peluche

Jean Rivière

Jacques Deray

based on Georges Simenon

1995

A Hundred and One Nights

Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma

Himself

Agnès Varda

cameo appearance

1997

Day and Night

Le Jour et la Nuit

Alexandre

Bernard-Henri Lévy

with Arielle Dombasle and Lauren Bacall

1997

Une chance sur deux

Julien Vignal

Patrice Leconte

with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Vanessa Paradis

1999

Actors

Les Acteurs

Himself

Bertrand Blier

2003

Frank Riva (fr)

Frank Riva

Television Series[53]

2008

Asterix at the Olympic Games

Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques

Julius Caesar

Frédéric Forestier and Thomas Langmann

with Gérard Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac and Benoît Poelvoorde

2012

Happy New Year, mothers! (С новым годом, мамы!)

Himself

Alain Delon Young

The legendary French actor, very young in the late 1950’s.

Alain Delon Youtube – Youtube Alain Delon

Alain Delon Interview

Film legend Alain Delon says he’s ready to die – but his dog must come too

“I hate the times that we live in, it makes me vomit,” said the 82-year-old actor, one of the handsomest men ever to grace the silver screen.

“There are people that I hate. Everything is false, and only money counts. I will leave this world without regret,” he told Paris Match magazine in a frank, tell-all interview in which he admitted to not being much of a father to his children, one of whom he still refuses to recognise.

Delon, who lives alone outside Paris, said he wants his two-year-old Belgian Shepherd dog, Loubo, to die with him.

“If I go before him I will ask the vet for us to go together. He will inject him so he can die in my arms.

“I would prefer that rather than leaving him to die of grief on my tomb,” said the star of such classics as Visconti’s “The Leopard”, “The Samurai” and “Purple Noon”, which was later remade as the “Talented Mr Ripley”.

Yet Delon did not rule out making room for the right woman to shares his last days.

He said there were about 10 candidates, “but for now none are quite right.”

He added he might even consider breaking his vow to never remarry if the right woman “was ready to accompany me to the end.”

The actor, who made his name playing pretty boy killers and cads, talked of his fear that he might be dug up after his death for DNA for a paternity test.

MISERABLE CHILDHOOD

Delon has long denied he fathered a son with Nico, the late German pop star and muse of Andy Warhol.

However, Delon’s mother later adopted the boy, making him his half-brother.

Yet Delon’s own miserable childhood badly marked him, he told the magazine. “My parents got rid of me when I was four. I found myself with a foster family like an orphan.”

“Both of them came running back to me when I was famous. All of a sudden they remembered they had a son,” he said bitterly.

Nor has he forgiven them for signing his army papers so he could be thrown into the bloody Indochina War at 17. “It was them getting rid of me a second time,” he said.

Delon put down his tumultuous love life and much of his woes with women to being abandoned.

“You cannot get back the love that wasn’t given to me as a child. These are holes that can never be filled. Even when I love a woman, I feel alone. I was only four when I understood that those you love the most can abandon you.”

The tell-all interview, over oysters, was conducted by Valerie Trierweiler, the estranged partner of former French president Francois Hollande.

She effectively torpedoed his presidency with a bestselling account of their relationship, “Thank You For This Moment”, after he left her for an actress.

The journalist recently denied that she and Delon were an item.

‘I WAS A LITTLE THUG’

The actor admitted that he had not always been the perfect gentleman.

“I am like that, I do stupid things. I have been in prison. I was a little thug. All I had was my face,” he said.

Yet women have always fallen at his feet, even as a baby, he said. “My mother had to put a sign on my pram, ‘You can look, but you can’t touch!'”

“I have been loved all my life,” he said, particularly by the German actress Romy Schneider and Mireille Darc, who died last year.

“Very few men have been loved like me.”

But Delon said he never slept with Brigitte Bardot, who was the Venus to his Apollo in French cinema of the 1960s.

“Strange though it may seem… given the torrid scenes we did, we were only friends, but good friends,” he told Paris Match of the actress, who like him has been a vocal supporter of the far-right National Front party.

“I really like her and we share a passion for animals. If she had not her great love of animals I am sure she would have killed herself by now, like so many other great sex symbols. It is very hard for a woman to no longer see desire in men’s eyes.” – AFP

Alain Delon Gay

Delon says he doesn’t give a damn about gay marriage, but that he’s against the adoption of children by gay couples.

Alain Delon Watch

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Alain Delon Watch

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Alain Delon Perfume

Together with his lifetime team, some of whom have been with him for more than 20 years, they are proud to have achieved equivalent value and recognition for the timepiece brand, Alain Delon.

Alain Delon Cesar

Actor 1985 · Our Story Winner

Actor 1978 · Death of a Corrupt Man Nominee

Actor 1977 · Mr. Klein Nominee

Alain Delon Asterix

In their new adventures, Asterix and Obelix come to the aid of their friend Alafolix and must fight Brutus, Caesar’s son, to win the Olympics.

Initial release: 13 January 2008 (Paris)Director: Frédéric ForestierBox office: 133 million USDProducers: Thomas Langmann, Jérôme SeydouxDid you know: Asterix at the Olympic Games is the second-most expensive non-English-language film by production cost ($113,500,000).

Alain Delon Dior

In 1966, Dior launched Eau Sauvage, the explosive scent that has since become a French classic. The legendary original is now available in a cologne version, a fresh take infused with mandarin, grapefruit and rose notes for a crisp aroma.

Alain Delon’s work with Eau Sauvage continues, this time in a short film using images from the film The last Adventures by Robert Enrico released in 1967. Watch it now exclusively on Vogue Hommes.

Alain Delon Romy

In 1958, the romantic and youthful actress of the Sissi franchise stars in Christine, opposite the seductive and rogue French playboy. Romy Schneider and Alain Delon immediately fall in love and settle in Paris where they become engaged and incarnate one of cinema’s most charismatic and glamourous couple.

Helped by her fiancé who presents her to the major directors of the 1960s, the actress’s career expands itself and she delivers a whole new image, far from the naive roles of her native country. But Alain Delon is unstable in his romances and leaves Romy Schneider in 1964.

As a forgiving gift, the actor imposes the actress considered a has-been at the time, on the set of The Swimming Pool, in 1968: her career is launched again while fans are delighted to catch a glimpse of the sensual and beautiful couple, reunited at least, on screen.

Alain Delon Nathalie Delon

When Nathalie and Alain Delon meet, in 1964, she is a young woman who has just arrived in Paris from Morocco and he is already a celebrated and fantasy actor. On their first encounter, he drinks so much, he throws up on her: no matter, she becomes his lover, wife and mother of his first child, Anthony.

Life between them is soon chaotic and Nathalie Delon would later admit: ‘He wasn’t difficult to live with, he was simply turbulent. We loved each other between laughter and furor’.

They often fight – she once fires the door of their bedroom with a gun – and the taciturn and seductive character of Alain Delon smashes against her violent taste for freedom and jealousy. In 1968, he meets Mireille Darc and they divorce although they continue to live together for two more years.

He insists she keeps his name, ‘the name of our son’ and that’s surely why, despite a whole new life away from Alain Delon and twenty years spent in the United States, Nathalie remains the unique Madame Delon.

Alain Delon Today -Alain Delon Now

Nico Alain Delon – Alain Delon Nico

Nico had an affair with French actor Alain Delon and from this relationship conceived a son, Christian Aaron Boulogne (fr), whom Nico called “Ari.” Delon denied paternity and Nico had difficulty raising Ari, so the boy was raised by Delon’s parents. Ari became a photographer and actor, and had a son in 1999.

Alain Delon News

Alain Delon: ‘Women were all obsessed with me’

There’s a disquieting moment in Purple Noon, René Clément’s 1960 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr Ripley, in which Tom Ripley muses upon his fresh murder. He sits, glass of wine in hand, sipping it, slowly. His eyes, the focus of the shot, are the clearest grey. Like marbles, they are beautiful, but they are cold, glassy and empty.

They are Alain Delon’s eyes and they would make him an overnight star. Often dubbed the male Brigitte Bardot, it only took one film, Purple Noon (adapted again in 1999 as The Talented Mr Ripley, starring Matt Damon) for 25-year-old Delon to take the title as the most seductive man in cinema.

Delon’s lazy insouciance, cold detachment, shady sophistication and angelic insolence – learnt, no doubt, from past connections with the French criminal underworld – carved him a niche: the pretty-boy killer. Delon was later credited as having created cinema’s “cerebral hitman”.

Classic followed classic, from Luchino Visconti’s Rocco And His Brothers in the same year of Purple Noon, to Visconti’s The Leopard in 1963, via Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï in 1967 and Jacques Deray’s seminal masterpiece La Piscine in 1969. With each film, Delon’s impossible beauty and impenetrably dark temperament would swell his status further.

But because Delon rejected English-speaking roles (the effort entailed would scupper his trademark languor) and thus a contract with American producer David Selznick, he was God everywhere but Hollywood.

He was idolised by men and women alike, from France to Japan. He dated everyone from Mireille Darc to Romy Schneider. From the Sixties to the mid-Eighties, Delon dominated the national box office and was the highest-paid actor in France’s history.

This year will mark Delon’s sixth, and last, decade in cinema. At 81 years old, with a repertoire of 80-plus films, for which he has won France’s highest film prize, the César, and was awarded the Legion Of Honour, Delon is retiring.

The choice was easy: an exceptional past, a mediocre future. There’s no point in dawdling. He will do one more play and one last film with Patrice Leconte, starring opposite Juliette Binoche, then it will be over. Cut. The end.

Along with Charles de Gaulle, Alain Delon is one of the most recognisable Frenchmen in the world. When I meet him, he is standing by the general’s tomb in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, northeastern France, where de Gaulle died.

He stands with his face turned towards the sun, looking up at the giant Lorraine cross which seems to tower above the whole of France. Moments earlier, he laid a wreath on the general’s tomb and crossed himself twice, observed by a couple of delighted onlookers asking for selfies.

He searches for the right voice – slows his words, gives them weight – and begins to recite de Gaulle’s famous appeal, broadcast by the BBC 77 years ago, asking the French to join him in fighting the German occupying forces.

“I, General de Gaulle, currently in London, invite French officers and soldiers located on British territory, or those heading this way, armed or unarmed, as well as engineers and specialised workers of the armament industries, to contact me.”

Alain Delon, who has always played the part of Alain Delon, now thinks he is General de Gaulle. And he gives himself fully to the part. How could he not? Once considered one of the world’s most handsome men, Delon is entitled to show off a little.

On 14 July 1958, Delon was standing near de Gaulle on the Champs Élysées during an inspection of the troops. De Gaulle was acknowledging the cheering crowd. Delon was an unknown orderly among thousands. De Gaulle did not recognise Delon in the crowd. “That was inevitable,” Delon explains, snootily.

“In 1958, Delon was not Delon. And when he became Delon, he did not have the opportunity to meet the general.” When did he become Delon? “Only after Purple Noon,” he replies, unfazed that I, too, am talking about Delon in the third person. “The film was a great hit in Japan.

I became an emperor over there. All the boys were crazy about Delon. They styled their hair like Delon. A taxi driver in Tokyo told me, ‘So you are a Frenchman? Like Alain Delon?’ They only knew two French names in Japan: de Gaulle and Delon.”

There are two types of Delon: annoyed Delon and emotional Delon. The megalomaniac and the nostalgic. They feed off each other. The night before Delon read de Gaulle’s BBC appeal, just under a hundred of us are sitting outside in the dark, facing the gigantic Lorraine cross as it wanes in the black starry night. Delon is in the first row, shaking intermittently with muffled sobs.

A projector has been assembled on its large granite base and arms. A film is showing. The voiceover in the commentary is that of Alain Delon. Delon is listening to himself speak. He is speaking about de Gaulle, about himself and, in truth, about us.

This is because the film, a little gem directed by the company Penseur De Prod, is a sonic and visual retrospective of 12 years of Gaullism, from 1958 to 1969. It’s a return to the joyous Sixties, full of innovation and optimism.

In a single hour, a whole decade flits across the screen: politics, adverts, newsreaders, TV programmes, famous songs, films and actors; de Gaulle speaking on the news; de Gaulle’s Citroën DS; the opening credits of the Eurovision Song Contest; Bardot’s bottom in Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt; Johnny Hallyday and Claude François and young bucks about to become stars, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Delon, Maurice Ronet… Their photos flicker on the cross. Then there are the dead: small animated coffins that take off like rockets along the cross up to the stars.

Edith Piaf, Gérard Philipe… With each death, Delon emits a kind of hiccup, like a brief cry of pain. On 28 April 1969, President de Gaulle stands down after his referendum defeat and dies the following year. “France will never be the same again,” solemnly concludes Alain Delon’s disembodied voice from the film.

Is Delon crying over de Gaulle, himself, these golden years, or the France he has loved and lost? All of it, no doubt. His greatest years coincide with that same decade: 1958-1969. It was a turbulent era, gripped by conservatism – carefully censored news, quietly growing social taboos – and the irrepressible desire for freedom and celebration.

Delon was there. The stepson of a butcher from Bourg-la-Reine, Delon was too restless to study, so he enrolled as a marine at the end of the First Indochina War.

A turning point for Delon was when his friend and colleague Brigitte Aubert introduced him to the director Yves Allégret, who cast him in Send A Woman When The Devil Fails. “I had no idea what to do,” says Delon, with his trademark stare. “Allégret stared at me, just like that, and told me: ‘Listen to me, Alain.

Speak as you are speaking to me. Stare as you are staring at me. Listen as you are listening to me. Don’t act. Live.’ It changed everything. If Yves Allégret had not told me that, I would never have had this career.” Continue reading

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